Trending This Week: How to Connect with Leads

April 27, 2018

Is it possible to talk about the best ways to reach out to leads too often? Given that refilling your pipeline with qualified, genuinely interested leads is one of the most important parts of sales, probably not. Even if you feel good about your lead gen practices, there’s value in reviewing your practices — a slight improvement can lead to massive returns, after all.

This week’s rundown of trending sales content includes an excellent guide on how to reach out to leads. You’ll also discover how to move your B2B sales online, get introduced to a new podcast, and more.

Here’s what sales pros are reading and sharing this week:

This list doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, but it does offer a comprehensive look at lead generation. Not only does Johanna Rivard at PureB2B effectively cover ten important steps for reaching out to leads, she uses data, and wraps everything into a handy infographic.

Generating quality leads is hard, which is why salespeople are so hungry for content on the subject. This guide is a great resource on everything from creating a contact list to starting a conversation to keeping information organized. There is plenty to digest in the piece, and the entire read is worth your time.

As Brian Green at Magento Commerce writes, B2B sales are moving online. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the rapid move to online sales for buyers of all kinds. In his piece, Green looks at how to break down some of the legacy sales systems that may be old fashioned in the digital age.

One key takeaway is to examine your current structure and see if processes or tech can be updated for an online sales model. Green looks at the importance of integrating transactions into your website itself. He also breaks down the importance of content and using SEO to drive users to your website.

If you were asked to choose the three biggest challenges facing a B2B salesperson, what would you say? It’s hard to narrow it down to just three, right? On the ContactMonkey blog, Rubain Manzoor takes a crack at it, and comes up with these three challenges:

Modern buyers do a lot of research.

The number of options complicates the decision-making process.

There are multiple decision makers in a sale.

The post walks through challenges these scenarios pose, as well as a solution to each.

Looking for new podcasts to listen to? Sales Hacker just released their weekly sales insights podcast, and it looks like it will be a great resource. Each episode, host Sam Jacobs speaks to a guest from the world of sales to talk strategy and break down what’s new in the industry.

If you ever feel like a buyer is skeptical of you simply because you’re a salesperson, it may not be your imagination. ValueSelling Associates, Inc. released a report that says 60% of B2B buyers distrust sellers, and only 34% of buyers believe their sales rep is helpful throughout the process. The study dives into more details about how buyers prefer to be contacted, sales people’s industry knowledge, and more.

It’s a valuable look into how buyers think. While it can be discouraging to see that you have to overcome a trust issue from the beginning, it also presents an opportunity to be aware of buyers’ needs and provide legitimate value throughout the sales process.